Auto-recharge of credits keeps getting turned back on / is automatically selected and turned on every time you buy credits

Happened to me. I have to hope the disputes go through.

This happened to me after I authorised a manual payment of 1000 credits but I didn't notice for 2 days and it had taken 36 further automatic payments and a racked up a bill of over £1,600! Absolutely gutted.

This actually happened to me as well, and I'm pretty mindful of this. I didn't receive a single email/notification the whole time.

Honestly had developed a mental model of Codex being a much better cost-per-performance harness but I guess it was just secretly charging instead.

This is still happening. And also reverting model selection to Sol after manually selecting to a prefered model.

Codex UI incorrectly suggests that purchasing credits extends weekly usage limit

Summary

The Codex interface led me to believe that purchasing credits would allow me to continue using Codex immediately after reaching my weekly usage limit.

I followed the purchase flow exactly as presented by the UI, completed the payment successfully, but I still cannot use Codex.

This appears to be either:

• a UI/UX issue that misleads users about how credits work, or
• a billing issue where purchased credits are not applied.

---

Environment

• Platform: ChatGPT Web and Desktop App
• Plan: ChatGPT Plus
• Date: July 17, 2026

---

Steps to Reproduce

1. Reach the weekly Codex usage limit.
2. Codex displays the following message:

"You've reached your Codex and Work usage limit."

1. Click Add credits.
2. The purchase dialog states that buying credits allows you to continue using Codex after your balance runs out.
3. Purchase 500 credits.
4. Payment completes successfully.
5. Return to Codex.

---

Expected Behavior

After purchasing credits:

• Credits should be added to the account.
• Codex should continue working using the purchased credits after the included weekly quota has been exhausted.

---

Actual Behavior

Codex remains blocked.

The Usage Analytics page shows:

• Weekly usage remaining: 0%
• Credits remaining: 0

The application continues asking me to wait until the weekly reset or upgrade to Pro.

---

Evidence

Payment receipt confirms:

• Purchase date: July 17, 2026
• Amount: R$110.00
• Credits purchased: 500
• Payment status: Paid

Support ticket has already been opened with OpenAI.

---

Why this is a UX problem

The issue is not only that the credits were unavailable.

The interface explicitly guided me through a purchase flow that strongly implied purchasing credits would allow continued use of Codex after reaching the weekly limit.

A reasonable interpretation of the UI is:

"You reached your limit → Buy credits → Continue using Codex."

Instead, after payment:

• Weekly limit remained exhausted.
• Credit balance remained zero.
• Codex stayed unavailable.

This creates a confusing and misleading user experience.

---

Suggested Improvements

If credits are not intended to bypass the weekly usage limit, the purchase flow should clearly state this before payment.

For example:

Purchasing credits does not extend your weekly usage allowance. Credits are only used after your account is eligible to consume them.

or

Credits cannot be used while your weekly plan limit is exhausted. Upgrading to Pro is required for additional usage.

If this is instead a billing issue, then the purchased credits should be correctly applied to the user's account.

---

Impact: High (users may purchase credits expecting immediate access to Codex based on the current interface behavior).

The Codex interface led me to believe that purchasing credits would allow me to continue using Codex immediately after reaching my weekly usage limit. I followed the purchase flow exactly as presented by the UI, completed the payment successfully, but I still cannot use Codex.

And again, just like in the other issue, this is not related to the issue discussed here. Also it's just an app bug. You get the credits and it is supposed to continue working after buying. If that's not the case, it's a bug and you should report it in a NEW issue.

Back to the original issue, this just happened to us also - we've been left with a 1,500 euro bill. Auto-recharge was on when it was explicitly switched off. Codex (via vscode) showed very confusing information about what was going on, it just blew past the subscription limits, and continued with credits while also offering to buy more credits but apparently auto-recharging in the background anyway. There was no indication of what was going on, and the sessions were unattended for quite a large part of the issue.

Not ok at all.

(We've added a very low limit now, turned it off again - which shouldn't be required - but is the only obvious fix)

@etraut-openai maybe you guys should take a look at that soon, it is kind of a serious issue. Too serious for letting the issue vanish in the flood of 5K other issues.